Clothes drier

ABSTRACT

A clothes drier which is so designed that a filter holding frame may be fitted to a rotary drum at its peripheral edge, whereby the mounting and demounting operations of said filter holding frame are simplified, the production cost of the drier is reduced and further the lint efficiency is enhanced.

I Unlted States Patent 1 1 [111 3,722,106

Takeyama et a]. 1 Mar. 27, 1973 CLOTHES DRIER [56] References Cited [75] Inventors: KOjil'O Takeyama, Kawanishi; UNITED STATES PATENTS Masao Hamamoto, Nishinomiya, both f Japan 2,546,925 3/1951 Geldhof et a1 ..34/82 2,925,665 2/ 1960 Smith ..34/82 [73] Assignee: Mafsushita Electric Industrial C0., 3,471,940 10/1969 Smith ..34/133 Ltd., Oaza Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, 3,648,381 3/1972 Fox ..34/82 Osaka, Japan Primary Examiner-Carroll B. Dority, Jr. [22] Flled' 1971 Attorney-Richard K. Stevens et a]. 21 Appl. No.: 199,123

[57] ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Application Priority D t A clothes drier which is so designed that a filter holding frame may be fitted to a rotary drum at its NOV. 25, Japan p ip a edge eby t nt g d d ing operations of said filter holding frame are sim- UOSI c n l I I [51 1 lllt. Cl ..F26b 21/06 further the lint efficiency is enhanced. [581 Field of Search ..34/82, 133

2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures CLOTHES DRIER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to filter holding frame mounting means in the so-called drum rotating type clothes driers.

2. Description of the Prior Art Conventional filter holding frame mounting means in this type of clothes drier include, for example, the one described in US. Pat. No. 2,925,665. According to this prior art means, a rotary drum is provided with a spider member, a hub and a drum rotating shaft, while a filter holding frame is provided with a hub portion adapted to be telescoped over said hub and a garter, spring resiliently arranged peripherally of said hub portion, and said filter holding frame is mounted on said rotary drum at its center. However, in the art of clothes drier it is the general trend to support a rotary drum, not by means of a central shaft as in said U.S. Patent but by means of bearing means which support, through the intermediary of a felt, flange portions formed at the front and back faces of the rotary drum. If, in this case, filter holding frame mounting means as described in said US. Patent is employed, an independent shaft must be provided solely for the purpose of holding a filter. Further, the construction as described in said US Patent is disad vantageous also in that the lint area of the filter holding frame is substantially decreased by the presence of the hub portion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide filter holding frame mounting means in clothes driers, by which a filter holding frame is mounted on a rotary drum at the peripheral edge thereof.

According to the present invention, the filter holding frame is mounted on the rotary drum at the peripheral edge thereof, as stated above. Therefore, there can be obtained the merit that a sufficiently large lint area can be substantially secured and the lint efficiency can be enhanced.

Furthermore, since the filter holding frame is secured in a filter mounting opening of the rotary drum by cut-bent lugs formed on the peripheral surface of said opening and engaging the peripheral edge of said filter holding frame, the filter holding frame mounting structure is very simple and has a merit of reducing the production cost of the drier. The filter holding frame mounting hole is not required to be formed in the rotary drum solely for the purpose of mounting the filter holding frame but is formed as a result of forming the above-mentioned flange portion which provides rotary drum bearing means according to the recent trend of this type of clothes drier, and it will be understood that the present invention is advantageous also in this respect in substantially reducing the production cost of the drier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 2a-is a front elevational view of the filter holding frame;

FIG. 2b is a vertical sectional view of the filter holding frame;

FIG. 3a is a front elevational view of the filter mounting portion of the rotary drum;

FIG. 3b is a vertical sectional view of the filter holding frame as mounted on the rotary drum;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the filter; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing in an enlarged scale the portion A of FIG. 2b.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described hereunder with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates an appearance cabinet of the clothes drier. Inside the cabinet 1 is mounted a rotary or drier drum 2 which is rotatably supported therein with its axis of rotation extending horizontally. On the bottom wall of the cabinet 1 is mounted by means of a bracket 5 a capacitor type motor 3 to drive the rotary drum 2 and an exhaust fan 4. The cabinet 1 is formed in the front panel thereof with a clothes inlet opening 6 concentric with a clothes inlet opening 7 of the rotary drum 2, and said inlet opening 6 is closed by an openable door 8 provided on the cabinet 1. The rotary drum 2 has a number of apertures 9 formed in the front wall thereof. A heater mounting plate 10 is provided covering the front face of the rotary drum 2 and an electric heater 11 is mounted on said heater mounting plate 10 through insulators 12. The heating mounting plate 10 is annular in shape and has a flange portion 13 formed at the inner peripheral edge thereof to rotatably support the front portion of the rotary drum 2 through the intermediary of a felt 14 consisting of a Teflon sheet or the like having a small coefficient of friction. A flat endless belt 15 is engaged around a driving pulley 16 of the motor 3 and the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drum 2 to transmit the driving force of said motor to said rotary drum to drive the latter. The flat belt 15 is held taut by means of an idler pulley 17. Further, an endless belt 18 is engaged around a driving pulley 19 of the motor 3 and a pulley 21 mounted on the shaft 20 of the fan 4 to transmit the driving force of said motor to drive shaft 20 to drive the fan 4. Reference numeral 22 generally designates blower means comprising a blower housing 22 and the exhaust fan 4 disposed therein. This blower means 22 is disposed reawardly of the rotary drum 2 between the back face of said rotary drum and the back panel of the cabinet 1, and has a flange portion 23 at the inner edge thereof to rotatably support the back portion of said rotary drum through the intermediary of a felt 24 consisting of a Teflon sheet or the like having a small coefficient of friction. On the inner surface of the rotary drum 2 are provided a plurality of baffle plates 25 each being substantially semicylindrical in shape and molded of a plastic material such as polypropylene. These baffle plates 25 help the clothes in the rotary dmm 2 fall back to the bottom and serve to stir the clothes during rotation of said rotary drum. Each bafi'le plate 25 is hollow and has a number of apertures 26 formed in the rear portion thereof as shown in FIG. 1. The cabinet 1 has an air passage opening 27 formed at the rear lower portion thereof and is provided with universal wheels 28 at the bottom thereof. The rotary drum 2 has air inlet openings 29 formed in the front wall thereof each in communication with the inner hollow of the corresponding baffle plate 25. The blower means 22 is formed with an exhaust opening 30. The central portion of the back wall of the rotary drum 2 is recessed outwardly in a circular shape as at 31 to provide for mounting of filter means 32 therein, and a number of air outlet apertures 33 are formed in this portion. On the inner peripheral surface of the recessed portion 31 are formed a plurality of inwardly projecting cut-bent lugs 34, by which a filter is secured in position.

Now, the construction of the filter means 32 will be described hereunder with reference to FIGS. 2 through 5. The filter means 32 comprises a holding frame 35 molded of a synthetic resin material, such as polypropylene or polyester, and has openings 36 of a relatively large area formed therein. This holding frame 35 is molded in a bowl-like shape and has a knob 37 formed at the center thereof, and a filter 38 is fitted in said holding frame 35 and secured therein with its outer peripheral edge in engagement with the inner peripheral wall of said holding frame. This filter 38, as shown in FIG. 4, is composed of a ringshaped frame 38' and a nylon screen 38" of relatively fine mesh stretched over the interior of said frame 38. The holding frame 35 has a plurality of projections 39 formed on the outer peripheral edge thereof in spaced relation to each other and each of said projections 39 is chamfered obliquely at an angle B on the side closer to the recessed portion 31 as shown in FIG. so as to facilitate the interlocking engagement of said projection with the .corresponding cut-bent lug 34 formed on the inner peripheral wall of said recessed portion 31. The inner peripheral surface 35' of the filter holding frame 35 is inclined inwardly outwardly at an angle a and the frame 38' of the filter 38 is held resiliently by the larger inner diameter portion of said inner peripheral surface of the filter holding frame as best shown in FIG. 5.

The filter means 32 constructed as described above is mounted on the rotary drum 2 in the following manner:

Namely, the filter 38 is snap-fitted in the inner peripheral wall 35' of the filter holding frame 35 at first and then the filter holding frame 35 with the filter 38 thus fitted therein is snap-fitted in the recessed portion 31 of the rotary drum 2 by taking advantage of the resiliency of said folding frame and secured therein by the interlocking engagement of the projections 39 formed thereon with the cut-bent lugs 34 formed on the inner peripheral surface of said recessed portion 31,,as

shown in FIG. 3b. When it is desired to demount the filter means 32 from the rotary drum 2, the knob 37 on the filter means is pulled in the direction of the arrow B in FIG. 1, whereby the outer peripheral edge of the holding frame 35 is deflected inwardly and the filter means 32 can be simply demounted.

Although in the embodiment described and illustrated herein, the projections 39 are provided at a plu rality of locations on the outer peripheral surface of the holding frame 35, it is to be understood that these projections may, for example, be provided continuously along the entire peripheral surface of the holding frame, and in this case there can be obtained the merit that the mounting of the filter means is not restricted by the positional relation between the holding frame 35 and the cut-bent lugs 34 of the recessed portion 31.

We claim:

1. A clothes drier comprising an appearance cabinet; a rotary drum rotatably mounted within said cabinet with its axis of rotation extending horizontally; a motor for. driving said rotary drum and blower means disposed reawardly of said rotary drum between said rotary drum and said cabinet; said cabinet having a clothes inlet opening formed in the front panel thereof; said rotary drum having a clothes inlet opening formed in the front wall thereof concentrically with the clothes inlet opening of said cabinet, a recessed portion formed on the back wall thereof for mounting filter means, a

number of air outlet aperture formed in said recessed portion and a plurality of inwardly projecting projections formed on the inner peripheral wall of said recessed portion for engagement with said filter means; said filter means comprising in combination a holding frame molded of a synthetic resin material and having formed therein openings of relatively large area, and a filter of relatively fine mesh fitted in the inner peripheral wall of said holding frame; said holding frame being formed on the outer peripheral wall thereof with projections for interlocking engagement with the projections of said recessed portion; and said blower means comprising a blower housing and an exhaust fan disposed in said blower housing.

2. A clothes drier as defined in claim 1, wherein said projections formed at the recessed portion of the back wall of said rotary drum are cut-bent lugs and said projections formed on the outer peripheral wall of said holding frame are each chamfered on the side closer to the corresponding projection formed at said recessed portion, and further the inner diameter of the peripheral edge portion of said holding frame is progressively increased inwardly. 

1. A clothes drier comprising an appearance cabinet; a rotary drum rotatably mounted within said cabinet with its axis of rotation extending horizontally; a motor for driving said rotary drum and blower means disposed reawardly of said rotary drum between said rotary drum and said cabinet; said cabinet having a clothes inlet opening formed in the front panel thereof; said rotary drum having a clothes inlet opening formed in the front wall thereof concentrically with the clothes inlet opening of said cabinet, a recessed portion formed on the back wall thereof for mounting filter means, a number of air outlet aperture formed in said recessed portion and a plurality of inwardly projecting projections formed on the inner peripheral wall of said recessed portion for engagement with said filter means; said filter means comprising in combination a holding frame molded of a synthetic resin material and having formed therein openings of relatively large area, and a filter of relatively fine mesh fitted in the inner peripheral wall of said holding frame; said holding frame being formeD on the outer peripheral wall thereof with projections for interlocking engagement with the projections of said recessed portion; and said blower means comprising a blower housing and an exhaust fan disposed in said blower housing.
 2. A clothes drier as defined in claim 1, wherein said projections formed at the recessed portion of the back wall of said rotary drum are cut-bent lugs and said projections formed on the outer peripheral wall of said holding frame are each chamfered on the side closer to the corresponding projection formed at said recessed portion, and further the inner diameter of the peripheral edge portion of said holding frame is progressively increased inwardly. 